A conventional image sensing apparatus, which captures a high density still image when instructed to capture a still image by external manipulation while sensing a moving image, is provided. For example, the apparatus has multiple image processing systems, one for a still image and another for a moving image, and processes a still image in a still image system. The still image to be processed is constructed with several frames by sequentially processing area portions of a screen separated by a frame period or a field period, as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-326896.
For another example, an apparatus having an image sensing device for reading out moving and still images in separate modes is provided. The apparatus can switch to still image reading on receipt of a still image continuous sensing command while storing a moving image, to continuously shoot only a preset number of still images, and repeatedly processes one moving image and one still image. It is arranged to lower the frame rate of moving image data to process the still image in this case, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-158653.
As for the conventional examples, however, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-326896 has problems that its LSI chip area increases because it is arranged to have multiple image processing blocks for the still images and for the moving images. Also, power consumption increases because it performs simultaneous parallel image processing of the moving image and the still image. As for Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-158653, there is a problem that the frame rate of the moving image decreases on capturing the still image while storing the moving image.